The city of Ōzu lies in the Nanyo region, part of Ehime Prefecture in Japan. From there, visitors can take a 30-minute ferry to Aoshima, also known as Cat Island. The large presence of felines has captured the attention of many tourists, but it seems that its main attraction will disappear in a few years...
History tells us that Aoshima once functioned as a fishing village, thanks to the abundance of sardines in its waters. Human activity inevitably attracts rodents, and many fishermen decided to adopt stray cats in their ports to protect the nets. Some of those cats remained on Aoshima, eliminating the rat problem and helping to boost tourism. However, the sardine population declined, and residents began to abandon the area.
The population of Aoshima went from 900 residents at the end of World War II to 13 in 2017. In contrast, there were more than a hundred cats on the island, with some sources citing a 10-to-1 ratio. The residents, all elderly, felt there were too many felines and not enough people to care for them. The Aoshima Cat Protection Society recommended starting a sterilization program, which was finally carried out in October 2018.
The Last Days of Cat Island
The Tokyo Weekender article cites the X/Twitter user “aoshima_cat”, who explains the particular situation of the island. Today only five people remain on Aoshima, including the “Cat Mom”. This woman is the main caretaker and stores food for them (the island has received donations from all over Japan), but she is 73 years old. At the same time, the sterilization program has been completely effective, and no new kittens have been born since then. All cats are at least seven years old.
There are also no reasons for Aoshima to reinvent itself as a tourist hub. There are no shops, no cafés, no vending machines. In fact, the decline in tourist numbers has led to consideration of reducing (or even cancelling) the ferry service. The situation is a bit sad, but it is preferable that the resident cats have a more comfortable life rather than suffer from hunger, overpopulation and disease.
Source: Tokyo Weekender
Images: Aoshima Cat on Instagram
